Bloom off Rosie; Colvin out for year

FOXBORO, Mass.  Since signing a six-year, $26-million contract this spring, linebacker Rosevelt Colvin has been dying to show the New England Patriots what kind of impact he can make on their defense.

Michael Parente

Published
12:00 am EDT, Saturday, September 20, 2003

Hell have to wait another year.

Colvin will be out for the rest of the season after having surgery Friday to repair a fractured left hip.

He is expected to make a full recovery, according to coach Bill Belichick.

He suffered the injury in Sundays 31-10 win over the Philadelphia Eagles while diving for a loose ball on a fumble by Donovan McNabb. He did not play the rest of the game and left the locker room on crutches.

Colvins loss is another crucial blow to an already-depleted defense. Lawyer Milloy and Otis Smith were cut prior to the start of the season and linebacker Ted Johnson broke his foot in a Week 1 loss at Buffalo.

Colvins absence may force the Patriots to switch their base defense from a 3-4 to a 4-3 now that they are missing two starting linebackers. Fridays announcement came after a weeks worth of speculation into the severity of Colvins injury.

He left the locker room in Philadelphia telling trainers that he heard something pop in his hip. He was the first player on the team bus. Several publications reported that he dislocated the hip and had it popped back into place. Others reported that he had a separation.

Belichick confirmed on Wednesday that Colvin would miss Sundays game against the visiting New York Jets, but he did not elaborate on the extent of his star linebackers injury. When pressured for answers by the media, he claimed he didnt know exactly what was wrong and told reporters that Colvin was still undergoing tests to determine a course of action.

He was asked again about Colvins whereabouts during Fridays press conference, roughly 2 hours before the team released a statement announcing the surgery, and continued to claim that everything was "status quo."

"I would just say that the medical people that he is working with are going through the process that they go through, whatever that is exactly Im not sure, to determine what the best course of action is and whats the best way of handling his particular injury," Belichick said Friday.

"Its not like hes criss-crossing back and forth across the country seeing 19 different doctors. Its not like they cant figure out if its his shoulder, his knee or his hip or whatever it is," Belichick said. "I think theyre trying to determine what the best thing is to do. In this case, its more important to do the right thing than to do it 5 minutes ago. Thats not going to affect the rehab or his situation. So, I think theyre trying to do the right thing."

Colvin reportedly visited at least four doctors to seek out a different opinion, and its suddenly clear why he did. Regardless of what Belichick told reporters on Wednesday, he probably knew the hip was fractured as early as Tuesday morning.

What the Patriots wanted was for a doctor to tell them that the injury wouldnt require immediate surgery. Clearly, there was no other alternative, so now their biggest free agent acquisition is done for the year, leaving a major hole in the defense.

Colvin, 26, was signed to inject youth into a veteran group and provide the Patriots with a legitimate pass rusher. He spent his previous four years with the Bears and accumulated 211 tackles and 26 sacks. He also forced seven fumbles.

Willie McGinest, a nine-year veteran who replaced Colvin last weekend and finished the game with two sacks, will start against the Jets, but its unclear what the Patriots will do for the rest of the season.

McGinest has experience as both a linebacker and a defensive end, which helps in Belichicks system because he likes to have his outside linebackers play at the line of scrimmage with one hand on the ground.

McGinest made the Pro Bowl in 1996 as a defensive end and finished the season with a career-high 9.5 sacks. Injuries, however, have kept him out of 12 games in the past two years and, at 32, hes simply not as fast as Colvin.

The Patriots only have four healthy, veteran linebackers left with experience in Belichicks system  Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Roman Phifer and McGinest. Johnson may be out for at least another six weeks. "I think everybody hates to see a player get injured, whether it be Rosie or anybody else," Belichick said on Thursday. "At the same time, we have lost two good players in the last two weeks and guys have stepped in for them and performed well.

"That is what team defense is all about, everybody rallying together and performing well as a unit, whether that is one person stepping up or a combination of more than one person filling that role. That is what football is all about. That is what team defense is about."